Iconoclasses: Multi-Sport Coaching

Four myths about ultra running that you need to know

Believing these four myths might be holding you back. Director of coaching at trainright.com, Jason Koop has been guiding elite athletes for decades. His new book Training Essentials for Ultrarunning is a veritable goldmine of training knowledge. We caught up with coach Koop to talk about the book, which he says disproves widely held beliefs…

The Dangers of Exercise Addiction

By nature, endurance athletes like to push their limits in an effort to improve. For some, that drive goes beyond simply doing their best and it becomes an addiction. This addiction can lead to many problems, both physical and mental, and can have very severe consequences. Often, it is a rigid and thin social aesthetic…

Male / Female Intermittent Fasting – Two sides of the same Coin

The issue of women specific Intermittent fasting seems to generally revolve around Hormone imbalance’s and fertility issues. Fatigue Depressed mood Bloating Headaches Irregular periods and fertility issues etc, some but not limited to. “I see it as the two sides of the same Coin” Refer article I just posted to highlight, from a Dr.Amy Shah,…

A Woman’s Guide To Intermittent Fasting

From article: Posted by Dr.Amy Shah, M.D., a double board-certified doctor who received her medical training from Cornell, Harvard and Columbia Universities. When I first tried intermittent fasting, I failed – miserably. The first day, I under at and couldn’t sleep all night from the hunger. The next day, I was tired, cranky, and grossly…

The amazing changes intermittent fasting

The amazing changes intermittent fasting does to your body and brain Stars like Beyonce and Hugh Jackman have spoken out about following intermittent fasting plans to get in shape. How does intermittent fasting work? We spoke with one of the leading neuroscientists in this field, Mark Mattson at the National Institute on Ageing Intramural Research…

Document maximal effort – RER

Respiratory exchange ratio The respiratory quotient and the RER are both calculated as the ratio of the volume of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced to the volume of oxygen (O2) used, or VCO2/VO2. The respiratory quotient, which typically ranges between 0.7 and 1.0, is an indicator of metabolic fuel or substrate use in tissues; it must…

Social group membership

Not many people have a number named after them, but Robin Dunbar lays claim to the Dunbar Number. Confusingly, no precise value has been attached to this figure, but a commonly cited approximation is 150 – and this is the number of people with whom we can maintain a meaningful relationship, whether in a hunter-gatherer society or on Facebook.

Rebellion to Find Fulfilment

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t…

Guide to Avoiding Procrastination

In AD 65, Seneca the Younger was forced to take his own life by the Roman Emperor Nero. The reason for Seneca’s execution was his perceived involvement in a failed assassination attempt of the Emperor. He was made to sever his own veins while ingesting poison. Today, Nero is remembered as a tyrannical figure in…

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner

The “runner” as a metaphor Literature about running has changed over the course of history. The short story “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” by Alan Sillitoe gave this genre a political perspective that changed the vision of a literary “runner”. Sillitoe’s character Smith uses running as a way to mentally reflect. Running gives…

10 Elements of a Perfect Freestyle Stroke

The off-season is an ideal time to work on improving swimming technique. Whether you’re planning a break after a long season or preparing to ramp up your training for the next one, you may want to take the next few months to work on the checklist below—a list that can help you become a more…

Breathing, great to get it right.

I’m going to assume you’ve been successfully breathing for some time. You get enough oxygen into your blood to support your physiological requirements and power your limbs, organs, and muscles. You know how to inhale, and exhaling is a breeze. You even know how to breathe through your nostrils like a champ. In other words,…

Why the Name “Iconoclasses”

The Origin of the Business Name “Iconoclasses”, has been asked on numerous occasions. We needed a name! So it is here I arrived – for no better reason! “Iconoclasses” synonymous, with Iconoclasm (People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts) a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any individual who challenges…

Bookmarked: Good Vegan, Bad Vegan

I bookmarked Good Vegan, Bad Vegan on Medium.

Bike set up power, aerobic, comfort

Increasing speed on the bike is a lot harder than it seems. To go one km per hour quicker in a 40km TT we need to find an extra 20 watts. To ride 1km/hour faster in an IM where we only ride at around 70% of our threshold power this means we need to improve…

Calculate Threshold Power

How To Calculate Threshold Power, Heart Rate, Or Pace Cycling Functional Threshold Power (FTP): Your Functional Threshold Power is by definition the Normalized Power for an all out effort of 60 minutes. However, you can get a fairly accurate estimate of your FTP by doing an all out effort of 20 minutes, then subtracting 5%…

Competing or Completing

If You Race Slow, Who Cares If you think you are a slow, push that thought out of your mind. It’s detrimental to your progress. Being a “slow” runner is merely a state of mind. Don’t let that affect your running. When I first started working with age group and recreational runners in 2009, one…

Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials

John L. Parker’s Once a Runner follows a fictional elite collegerunner, Quenton Cassidy. Cassidy is a sub-4 minute miler, and Olympic Gold Medal contender who professes a “secret.” The secret is that there is no secret. There is simply a trial of miles and miles of trials. Every day we make choices and one of the…

Benefits of Being Sick

No one likes to get that annual nasty flu or cold that lasts a week or more and comes roaring back just as you think you are getting better. Not a single person I coach or train with likes to miss training, not even a single day. But the reality is, sometimes you get that…

Breathing – Exhalation Technique

you know your problem? you keep it all in! important? Very few novice swimmers exhale properly into the water. Nearly all intermediate swimmers think they are exhaling correctly – at least, that’s what they say when we ask them. Do they? Very few do. Even amongst advanced swimmers, quite a few like to hold onto…

101-Bike

Coaching 101, Last week, we presented thoughts on the progressions we need to consider to improve our triathlon swimming. This week we explore the bike. Number one on the list for cycling is bike handling skills, bike set up, cycling posture and confidence. I helping a beginner cyclist take them out for some one on one…

101-Swim

So we have spent a bit of time thinking about what is required to put together a training program. Now we can dig a little deeper into the specific swim, bike and run elements to see where you should be investing your time. When it comes to swimming the one comment I continually hear is that…

Individuality

One of the biggest challenges a triathlete faces is wading through the plethora of information available to them. Magazines, the internet, athletes, coaches, pro athlete websites and blogs, all shout out the so called secrets to being a super star. The reality is everyone. In fact anyone spruiking it has to be dealt with a…

The Stroke Rate Ramp Test: Find Your Efficiency Sweet Spot(s)

Here’s a neat way to use your Tempo Trainer Pro to learn more about your individual stroke efficiency and find the right stroke rate for you. We call it ‘The Stroke Rate Ramp Test’ or just ‘Ramp Test’ for short. The Ramp Test gives you a full profile of your freestyle stroke and helps you…